All things fall and are built again, And those that build them again are gay.1

The Canterbury Earthquake Sequence which shook New Zealand (starting late 2010) is most certainly the defining moment of our generation. It was, and will continue to be, investigated under divers scientists’ magnifying-glasses. Science alone, however, is a slippery ‘glass’, at times lacking the necessary provisions that people, confronted with such asperities, need in order to physically and emotionally survive.

As Franz Kafka wrote The Great Wall of China as a metaphoric support for the Babel tower, so Leaving the Red Zone offers a Great Wall of “emotion and feeling”; an inclusive surge of human responses to the seismological numbers 7.1 and 6.3 and the contingent realities that seared Cantabrians. Articulated here is reality: nature, flesh and soul. The brain gains a heart.

Established poets James Norcliffe and Joanna Preston have expertly edited together 148 poems from 87 poets (in 5 sections, a prologue and an epilogue) that articulate diverse human responses to a natural disaster and its continuing aftermath. The book’s well-formatted sections: ‘September’, ‘February’, ‘Aftershocks’, ‘Demolition and Rebuilt’ and ‘Aftermath’ offer a journey. We cross a geography of deficit: of incomprehension, suffering and resignation and of regeneration: stoicism, defiance, reflection and commemoration. Multiple mindscapes enunciate the differing ‘zones’ mapped here in parlance larger than local – a quality that intensifies the value of this collection, allowing many beyond Aotearoa New Zealand to identify with the experiences and processes cartographed.

This is poignant human geography. In parts it reminded me of WWII poems from Europe, endlessly sad. Yet the editors of Leaving (perhaps because they are poets themselves) have chosen, on balance, to offer a positive ethos. They tell us that every poet-contributor responded freely to the disaster; each a free and individual exegete. On balance these poets affirm messages of hope in ‘Aftermath’: providing that we accept that nothing will ever be the same, providing that we accept that we have to “leave the red zone”.

The funds raised from sales of this publication will go to the Christchurch Earthquake Mayoral Relief Fund. Leaving the Red Zone (well executed by Clerestory Press) reinforces the editors’ and contributors’ intention – journeying towards community and regeneration – an affirmation (pace Adorno) that poetry can still remind us “of the richness and diversity of existence” (JFK).

Christopher Gomez (b 1978, Paris) spent his childhood between France, South Devon (UK) and South-Germany before graduating from Sorbonne University with a PhD in Environmental Sciences. Christopher enjoys a passion for both the sciences and the arts.